Columbia’s Courageous Stand

How brave Columbia University students made history in standing against genocide and injustice

Photo Courtesy AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah

As dusk fell over the Columbia University campus in Manhattan last Tuesday, the air was thick with electricity from the growing protests echoing beyond the university’s massive wrought iron gates. A group of over two dozen students, a diverse mix of faiths — friends and strangers united by a common cause — linked arms in front of student-occupied Hamilton Hall.

Though the university had mandated a shelter-in-place order, these brave souls chose to run directly into the fire, heedless of the likely consequences.

With voices broken yet mighty, they sang in hushed tones, “Your people are my people, your people are mine; your people are my people, our struggles align.” Like a chain forged from courage and conviction, they draped themselves in keffiyehs, shivering in the spring chill as hundreds of NYPD officers marched toward them, armed with flash grenades and pepper spray.

As the officers closed in from multiple…